Back to the beginning
by Intrepidexplorer
Summary: 2011 was the end of Gabriel Foster's hopes and dreams. Now fighting in a war with seemingly no end, he clings to the only thing he has left, the memory of a girl long dead.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Fear not the night

'The future has a way of arriving unannounced.' - George Will.

Gabriel Foster was content with life in general. As one of the youngest insurance assessors in his firm, he got the jobs that required the most long distance travel. Gabe did not mind - the truth was he liked driving in the country, especially when his company was picking up the tab for gas and mileage.

The job he was returning from was a result of a freak storm. Several houses were damaged, but only one was insured with his firm, and it only had some missing shingles and slight water damage. It had taken half the time his supervisor had allotted for him to do his assessment, which meant Gabe could enjoy the mountain scenery as he drove home along the Rim of the World Scenic byway back to LA.

In an hour and half he should be back at the office, just in time to file his report and call it a day. All in all, not a bad way to finish the week. The song on the car radio he was idly humming to finished, replaced by the country's current number one song, a song that his girlfriend Jen loved. Unfortunately, Gabe couldn't stand the overly sweet melody, so he switched to another channel. "… the White House and Joint Chiefs have yet to comment on resent reports of missile launches coming out of Iowa, this only hours after the Pentagon's much-vaunted missile defense system was brought on line. A spokesperson for..." Gabe, not really listing, kept pushing buttons until he gave up finding something he liked and switched off the radio all together.

He was just passing Silverwood Lake when his mobile started ringing. The ring tone indicated it was Jen, probably calling to ask him to pick up a bottle of wine on the way home "Hi, beautiful, what's…"

The flash came from the southeast and lit up the top of the mountain range as if the world had suddenly discovered a new dawn. Gabe yelped in surprise, dropping the phone. He gripped the steering wheel with both hands as he tried to control his rapidly slowing and unresponsive car, while simultaneously trying to blink away the afterimages that were temporally blinding him. The car went off onto the dirt verge, clipping vegetation along the way before suddenly coming to a stop when it hit a rock outcrop.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Gabe was more surprised than hurt; luckily he'd been wearing his seatbelt. Remembering his phone, he found it tucked up behind the accelerator pedal. Unfortunately, it was completely dead and no amount of key pressing was going to bring it back to life.

"Well, that's just great!" The words were barely out of his mouth when another flash lit up the horizon directly south causing Gabe to flinch involuntary. This one was smaller and not as intense as the first one was. In his rear-view mirror, he caught a third flash, this time from the north west. The last one was so small that he probably wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't caught it in the far right of his mirror. "What the hell is going on?" His mind was refusing to acknowledge the obvious conclusion that was flashing like a big neon sign saying "Nuke!" onto his consciousness. All he could do was sit, stunned, as he watched the large black mushroom cloud rise above the horizon, a harbinger of a million deaths and millions more to come. Then the sound hit, coming up the valley like the roar of a thousand angry freight trains.

* * *

Gabe came awake with a start. The thunder that had awakened him echoed around the landscape of twisted metal and broken concrete that sixteen years ago had been a large and prosperous city teaming with people. Those same people were still there - you could barely move through the rubble without standing on someone's remains.

He blinked away the dream that was his own personal nightmare and cursed under his breath for falling asleep while on sentry duty. That was happening a lot lately. For some reason, he had been much more tired than he should have been. _Maybe I'm just getting too old for this crap_! He mused. Gabe smiled grimly. More likely, it was cancer. After metal, cancer was the biggest killer of the surviving human population. Most people didn't live past fifty without dying from one or the other. Gabe figured he was about forty something; the exact figure eluded him. After Judgement Day, as it was later to be called, Gabe had ceased to celebrate birthdays. After all, another year surviving in this hellish landscape was more of a curse than a reason to celebrate.

Switching the scope to night mode on his Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle, Gabe scanned the blasted landscape for any sign of movement. At least metal wasn't subtle. You could usually spot one of the chrome domes from a mile away. The skin jobs, on the other hand, were more adept at sneaking up on you.

Satisfied that his inappropriate naptime hadn't compromised their position, Gabe covered up the irreplaceable scope with care. Like the rest of the rifle, the scope was rapped in rags to prevent any noise, should he accidentally bump into something, thus giving away his position. Silence was golden in the land of the machine.

A female voice whispered up at him, "Hey, Foster, you still alive!"

"Yes sergeant," Gabe whispered back.

"You've been so still I thought you'd died or something." The emphasis was on the 'or something.' Gabe knew if the sergeant even _suspected_ him of sleeping while on duty, he'd be cleaning latrines for the rest of his life. He waited to see if his indiscretion had been noticed.

"We move out in five; the lieutenant wants to be at the assembly point in two hours!"

Gabe turned and watched the small woman walk away just as the blood red sun started to rise. The ash of a destroyed world floating high in the atmosphere meant that the sunrises and sunsets were always a deep red in color; it also caused a general 20 degree drop in temperature at this latitude. So much for global warming.

As he shrugged into his pack and put on his helmet, Gabe took in the other members of his squad who were packing up camp in the culvert that had been their temporary home for the night. Nine were new and made up a three 81mm mortar section. They had been temporarily attached to the squad just for this mission.

Gabe's best friend Santiago gave a small wave as he made his way down through the rubble to join the others. They had fought together for about twelve years and he was the closest thing to family Gabe had. Santiago was cradling a M249 SAW 5.56mm machine gun, which was really too light to take on a Terminator unless you were practically in the same room as one. Standing next to Santiago, Sergeant Matheson barely came up to his shoulder, but what she lacked in stature she more than made up for in ability. The mere fact that the plasma rifle she carried was from a Terminator she had killed with a homemade pipe bomb left nobody in doubt to her effectiveness.

Their leader was the wiry Second lieutenant Washington, who despite his lack of imagination was a smart and careful planner. Gabe and Santiago both agreed he was a good if somewhat aloof leader. He also had a plasma rifle, but unlike the sergeants, his was a privilege of rank rather than a spoil of war. The lieutenant was currently talking with the last of their group; a gangly fifteen-year-old scout by the name of Kelly. Like all children born around the time of the bombs, Kelly had the almost supernatural knack of moving through the desolate landscape quickly and silently, almost as if she were a ghost. Unlike the rest of the squad, Kelly didn't have a backpack or any equipment, save for the pump action shotgun that hung over her shoulder. Scouts traveled light, as their job required them to range far ahead of a column to make sure they didn't run into any metal. Anything that would slow them down was considered unnecessary weight.

She and the lieutenant were currently studying a map. No doubt he was telling her where they would be heading to next on their way to the mysterious rendezvous point. While the lieutenant would pick the destination, it would be up to Kelly to pick the best route to get them there. She would leave marks along the way for squad to follow that only someone with a trained eye would be able to find.

With a smart salute to the lieutenant, Kelly spun round and scrambled up to the road with the agility that would make a gymnast envious. With barely a pause to look around, she quickly disappeared without so much as disturbing a pebble.

Gabe frowned when saw the direction Kelly had gone and reached into his jacket to pull out a dog eared street index that was the only thing he'd salvaged from his long ago abandoned car. Flipping through to the desired page, he traced what lay two hours' march in the direction the scout had taken and felt the blood drain from his face.

"What's the matter? You look sick." Looking up into the concerned eyes of his friend, Gabe tilted the book down so Santiago could see the place his finger still pointed at. Santiago made a hissing sound follow by a string of obscenities in Spanish. "LAX! They can't be serious. They're going to get us all killed!"

Gabe could only nod his head in agreement. The assembly point was located just outside what was generally referred to as the "triangle of death." Like the infamous Bermuda triangle for which it was named after, the triangle tended to swallow all who entered, leaving no clue as to their fate.

The points of the triangle - Hawthorn, Culver City and Huntington Park - were only general reference points, but the death to be found within those speculative boarders was real enough.

Idle gossip was that it held one or more factories. Whatever the truth was, the place was literally crawling with metal. Gabe patted Santiago on the shoulder as he moved passed to where the sergeant was impatiently waiting for them, Santiago fell into step beside him.

"Well, we knew that we were going to attack something. I guess they wanted to keep it a surprise!"

All he got was a grunt in way of a response.

When they had gathered together, the sergeant gave Gabe and Santiago an icy stare to show her displeasure at being kept waiting before addressing the squad.

"All right, you know the drill! Santiago, you have point. Foster, you'll be bringing up the rear! And Foster," the sergeant added.

"Yes, sergeant."

"Don't fall too far behind. The lieutenant wants to pick up the pace!"

"Yes, sergeant!" Gabe watched as the squad weaved between wrecked vehicles, until they reached the closest ruined building in that hunched walk-run style that everyone developed when on the surface. They paused awhile, then disappeared one by one around the corner. He would wait a couple of minutes before he would follow. As he counted off the seconds in his head, Gabe squatted down behind a burnt out Chrysler and pulled out an old worn wallet. Flipping it open, he found himself looking into the eyes of his once youthful and carefree self, which stared back at him from his drivers license. With a sigh, he turned the wallet around so he could look at the photo on the other side. His heart skipped a little, as it always did when looking at the image of the beautiful blonde woman before him. The sparkling blue eyes and Mona Lisa smile belied the quick whit and sharp intelligence, coupled with boundless energy, that was Jennifer Bourne. They had met in collage in their freshman year and from that time onward had been inseparable. Jen had wanted to get married and move out to the country, but Gabe had kept putting her off for reasons that didn't mean a thing now. "I was just scared," Gabe said, tracing his finger down the side of the faded photograph. There were worse things than death, and sometimes surviving was one of them. Gabe wished he could have been with her at the end, hold her in his arms and tell her one last time just how much she had meant to him. With his eyes closed, Gabe reached out with his free hand. Sometimes she felt so close, his fingers almost touching hers. He snapped the wallet close and put it away. _Time's up, gotta move_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

More than meets the eye

'If you're going through hell, keep going.' - Winston Churchill.

Gabe caught up with his squad near the end of Cypress Street. They were holed up in the ruins of a building that overlooked the airport. When he got inside, he hunched down behind sergeant Matheson, who, along with the lieutenant, was busily scanning the airport with binoculars for any signs of life.

"Took your time," said the sergeant, without looking around.

"Had to take a leak." This brought a snort from the sergeant; the lieutenant made no comment.

Popping the barrel of his sniper rifle on the windowsill next to the sergeant's head, Gabe sighted down his scope for a better look at the scene before them. With the naked eye, he could see that except for two plane wrecks, the runway was clear. Through his scope, the terminal came into sharper focus. It had mostly collapsed and had planes scatted around it like so much jetsam. One aircraft had been flipped onto its back and was half buried in the terminal itself, the tail sticking up like a cross over a mass grave.

"I got movement." Both the lieutenant and the sergeant turned around, took notice of where he was aiming, and then turned their binoculars onto the same general area.

"Where exactly?" asked the lieutenant.

"Far left building, ground floor just right of the nosecone of that Lufthansa jet," replied Gabe.

"I don't see – no, wait, there is something…. Ah, lost it!" said the lieutenant. 'You still got it corporal?"

"Yes, sir….right…in my…crosshairs."

"Is it metal?"

"Can't tell, too far into the shadows, but…no red eyes that I can see."

Lowering her binoculars, Sergeant Matheson turned around and sat on the floor so her head was under the windowsill. Looking at the lieutenant she said, "Could be a skin job or it could be our contact. Only one way to know for sure."

Thinking it over, the lieutenant came to a decision. "Alright, take Santiago and check it out. Foster, keep a bead on the target. If it so much as twitches the wrong way take it out!"

"Yes sir!"

The lieutenant turned to the mortar crew. "Sergeant Mullins! The room next door doesn't have a roof; I want you to set up a mortar to give covering fire should we need it."

As everyone started to move, Santiago came up behind Gabe, "So, how far do you reckon?"

Gabe checked the rangefinder attached to his scope. "Three quarters of a mile, give or take."

"Darn! That's a long walk in the open without any cover."

"Here." Without taking his eye of his target, Gabe rummaged in a pack hanging on his side, finally found what he was looking for, then held up a rag covered object for his friend to take. "Been keeping this for a special occasion."

Taking the object, Santiago unwrapped it to reveal a dark green steel ball. "Frag grenade! Nice!"

"For just in case…but if not, I want it back!" Chuckling, Santiago tapped Gabe's helmet in acknowledgement, then followed the sergeant outside.

* * *

The run from the twisted metal chain link fence that surrounded LAX to the wrecked airliner sprawled on the first runway was the longest sergeant Barbara Matheson had been in the open since she was twelve years old. She was acutely aware of a pair of HK's patrolling about three miles out to the east and kept expecting them to turn and attack her at any moment. She turned when Santiago came up behind her, breathing hard.

"You're out of shape."

"That's easy for you to say, you're at least ten years younger than me." Santiago bent over with his hands on his knees and spat at the ground.

Matheson's lips twitched up at the corners. "So you're saying you're getting old."

"Hey!" Santiago straitened up and wiped the back of his hand across his face. He then nodded at the terminal. "So how do you want to do this?"

The sergeant's eyes flicked from left to right as she looked over the building before saying, " The grass is high. That'll give us some cover, but there's no point beating around the bush. This is a perfect place to hole up. There is no way anyone can sneak up without being seen - too much open ground and no real cover.

"Besides, whoever's there already knows we're here. If it's our contact, fine. If not…."

Santiago finished her sentence "…we're already good as dead!"

The sergeant nodded before looking around the end of the fuselage to watch the HK's until they were finally out of sight. "Okay, let's go!" Matheson took off at a dead run straight for the nearest building. Santiago took a deep breath before following her.

* * *

"They made it to the terminal." The lieutenant was keeping Gabe updated just in case he had to switch targets quickly. "They're moving towards the target now."

"Something's not right. How many people are we supposed to meet?"

"I was told we'd meet our contact here. They didn't say how many, but the impression I got was only one."

"The target hasn't moved and they must have seen our people coming." Gabe was worried; instinct told him he was looking at the wrong target. "I'm changing my field of fire." Opening his left eye, Gabe swung his gun until he had the sergeant in view. Then he started to check just in front of their line of advance. "Got movement!"

* * *

Santiago had turned round and was walking backwards so he could check their rear when he suddenly bumped into the unexpectedly motionless sergeant. Turning around to find out why she had stopped, he was confronted by five heavily armed and camouflaged soldiers, all pointing their weapons at them.

A man, presumably the leader, upon seeing that he had their undivided attention, stepped forward and said, "Stagecoach!"

Quickly licking her lips, the sergeant replied, "Stardust!"

The leader nodded confirmation of the correct code. "One moment please, do not move." He waved a sixth individual forward out of the shadows. This man had a large German shepherd on a leash.

At the dogs' lack of reaction, the leader called, "Clear!" and the other soldiers put up their arms. "We had to be sure." Matheson smiled, understanding, then indicated the leader's chest. "Us too!" The leader looked down at the red dot that had been hovering over his chest from the moment he had revealed himself.

He looked up and gave a lopsided grin as Matheson waved the all clear signal and the red dot disappeared. "Welcome to firebase Alpha."

* * *

Gabe brought up the rear with Kelly as the squad made the dash in evenly spaced pairs to the terminal building. When he reached the nearest passenger-loading arm, he fell to his knees. There were spots floating before his eyes and although he was gasping in huge lung-fulls of air, it felt like he was suffocating.

Kelly, her voice full of concern, asked, "Are you all right?"

Gabe nodded as the feeling of a steel band around his chest started to lessen. "I'll be fine in a sec."

Gabe was suddenly raked with a fit of coughing, which after a moment subsided. Looking up, he said "See, I'm okay." Noticing Kelly's eyes widen in horror, he asked, "What's the matter?" She could only point to his mouth.

Putting his fingers to his lips, Gabe became aware that he could taste blood. When his fingers came away bloody, he sighed with the understanding of why he had been so tired lately.

Cleaning himself up as best he could, Gabe said to Kelly, "Let's keep this between us. No need to worry the others, alright?" Kelly, her eyes full of sadness nodded and Gabe patted her on the shoulder in appreciation. "C'mon, let's go before they send a search party after us!"

After being cleared by the dog, Gabe and Kelly were taken to where the rest of the squad was waiting. They were still at tarmac level under the main terminal building, where weeds and other plant life were slowly taking back the place. It was hard to believe this was once one of the busiest airports in America.

They were lead to a steel door so covered in rust and pealing paint that Gabe could barley read the "Authorized personal only" written on it. Despite its condition, the door opened smoothly and silently, revealing a steel gantry and staircase leading below ground.


	3. Chapter 3

**

* * *

**

Chapter Three

Signs and portents

'There was so much handwriting on the wall that even the wall fell down.' - Christopher Morley.

"Wow." Kelly's feelings were felt by all when they reached the bottom of the staircase, then proceeded through the swinging doors opposite. On the other side was a huge space that once housed the machinery that used to convey baggage from one side of the terminal to the other. It was now overflowing with sleeping cots and supplies and more people than any of them had seen in one place for a very long time. Their guide handed them off to a soldier who sat at a small desk at the entrance. She picked up a clipboard and made note of their unit number, then politely asked them to follow her.

They weaved their way through the multitude, gaining curious glances and the occasional greeting from the soldiers, who lined the route, until they reached the far side of the building.

Their guide showed them where they could camp and the location of the latrines and mess area. She then informed the lieutenant he was to report to a briefing at thirteen hundred hours and pointed to a set of doors which was heavily guarded by men in ranger uniforms. The rangers were accompanied by more dogs.

"More security than Fort Knox!" commented Santiago. "I wonder what's on the other side?"

"What's Fort Knox?" piped up Kelly.

"Just a place in Kentucky that was well guarded," replied Gabe, as Santiago rolled his eyes.

"Ah, the innocence of youth!" Santiago patted Kelly on the head, which got him a disdainful stare. "Lets go see what they got to eat. I'm starving!"

"You're always starving. But it's still a good idea." Everyone agreed as they followed the aroma of food to the mess area.

* * *

For Lieutenant Washington, the wait until one o'clock took an eternity, with far too much time to ponder the scale and type of operation that was obviously being planned here. An attack into the triangle was the most logical conclusion, considering their location, which was not the sort of raid he had hoped for. Although he knew the location of the meeting, he had thought that they were only going to meet a contact and be led to a target somewhere else. _Well, I'll know for sure soon enough, _he thought, as he joined other officers of varying rank line up to be checked through the tight security at the door to the meeting.

* * *

As Gabe striped down his gun and inspected the parts for wear and damage, his mind began to wander. He did not really have to concentrate on what he was doing because it was so familiar he could do it in his sleep.

What was bothering him was the implications of the blood he had coughed up. The world post Judgment Day didn't tolerate any weakness. The adage "Survival of the fittest" was more than just words - it was the law of the land. Anyone who survived the bombs and skynet, but relied on advanced medicines to live soon perished from their varying medical conditions, as did the lame or invalid. The resistance couldn't afford to carry anyone who did not pull their own weight. The fact of the matter was such people would only slow you down and get good people killed unnecessarily. Even knowingly spreading an STD amongst your fellow soldiers got you backed against a wall and shot. So, slowly dying of cancer in your bunker was definitely not encouraged. Not that anyone tried to take that option. Without the availability of morphine, that was the worst way to go. Most, if the cancer was too advanced, went for a walk on the surface with an old gun and a single bullet, never to be seen again. The rest just volunteered for missions they knew they wouldn't be coming back from. Better to die in battle than the alternative.

Gabe finished reassembling his gun and slapped the magazine into place. He had to resist the impulse to pull out his wallet. He so wanted to look at the photo of Jen again, but that was for private moments. If he did that here the others would want to know who she was and what she had meant to him, and Gabe knew that talking about her would only lead down the path of him getting over her death. However, Gabe needed her memory. It was the only thing that kept him going.

Gabe lay back in his cot bed and brought out the fragmentation grenade Santiago had returned to him. Turning it from side to side as if he had never seen it before, he pulled out his ka-bar and started to scratch a skull and crossbones into its surface. Now he knew for certain he was dying, it felt as if a weight had been lifted from his soul. _Ah Jen_, he thought, _I'll be seeing you soon!_

* * *

When the lieutenant entered through the door, he found a hall leading left and right, and a desk with the same soldier from the entrance with her ubiquitous clipboard. Checking his name and unit again, she indicated he should take the hallway to his left. The lieutenant paused for a moment because the two officers that had entered before him were disappearing down the hallway to his right. With a fake, almost too tight smile, the soldier indicated again that he should take the left hall. The lieutenant started off down the hallway, curious as to why he'd been singled out.

The hall ended with a plain blue door. The lieutenant paused for a moment to straighten out his uniform, then opened the door and stepped inside. His first thought was, _I guess I'm not the only one to get singled out,_ as there were seven other officers, ranging in rank from lieutenant to major. They all looked around at him when he came into the room, then turned their attention back out the window that lined the whole right hand side of the office. He gave the small room a quick once over. There wasn't much to see, other than some chairs and another door opposite. He took a couple of steps over to window to see what everyone was looking at. The window looked out over a large auditorium that was a level below their height. Like the room they were in, it too was filled with chairs, but had a makeshift stage at one end. It also had the officers that had taken the right hand hallway. There were perhaps fifty or sixty people down there, taking their seats.

The lieutenant guessed the room they were in was soundproof because the only noise from the other room came out of a speaker with a simple dial control mounted on the window.

"Look at the map," a captain next to him commented, "They're going to attack from three sides!"

Lieutenant Washington's eyes fell upon the large map of LA mounted above the stage. The triangle was clearly outlined, as were three large arrows, pointing inwards from each side. Within the triangle, rectangle shaped city blocks were shaded in to represent places of importance, including a very large triangle shaped section right dead center.

"If there's as many soldiers attacking from the other sides as there are assembled here, this is going to be one hell of a big battle!" said another lieutenant.

"I didn't think we had that many people in LA," lieutenant Washington finally spoke up.

"We don't," replied a major. "The brass would've had to bring in troops from the outlying sectors."

Their musings were interrupted by a commotion below; someone had entered and was heading for the stage.

"Is that Connor?" someone asked.

"Yes," another person replied in hushed tones. Below, the crowd parted like the sea from a ship's bow. They snapped to attention and gave crisp salutes as he walked past them to mount the stage in front of the big map.

General John Connor surveyed his audience for a moment from the top of the stage. The scar running down and across the left side of his face stood out sharply in the lights set up near the stage. "At ease," he finally said, "Please be seated."

After everyone had taken their seats, the silence in the room was louder than the hubbub that had preceded it. Everyone's eyes were locked on the General, all waiting expectantly for his next utterance as if he was the new messiah. Few people got to see General Connor - he was more than the man who led the resistance, he was the reason the resistance existed at all. He was skynet's nemesis, the one person sure to bring it to its electronic knees, so his presence was like an electric charge running throughout the room.

He seemed a bit overwhelmed for a second under the reverent gaze of the people in front of him before a grim expression came over his features and he began to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the operation you are about to undertake is the result of eight months of careful planning, based on intelligence that came at the cost of over thirty brave individuals. They gave up their lives to make this attack possible." He paused for a moment to let that information sink in, before walking backwards a couple of steps to slap his right hand in the middle of the map. "As you have no doubt guessed, the triangle contains several major factories… And while important, this here is the prize!" Pointing at the darker triangle in the center, he continued, "We have identified this as one of skynet's hubs. Once destroyed, we'll have broken skynet's control over the entire eastern coast!" This brought about a lot of excited murmurings from the crowd. The general waved his hands down for quiet before continuing.

"I'll tell you now, this won't be easy…far from it! This area is heavily defended by metal and skynet will throw everything its got at you to protect the hub." Another pause, "Also, around the hub itself is an interlocking defense grid of heavy weapon platforms. But once that defense grid is down the hub will be ours."

The crowd erupted in a roar of approval and cheers.

When cheering had died down, the general started to get into the plan in more detail. Lieutenant Washington and everyone else in the room were so intently listing to what the General was saying, that nobody heard the door at the far side of the room open, until a loud voice yelled, "Atten hup!"

The group of officers swung round as one in surprise, then quickly snapped to attention as a tall bald black man entered with the rank of major general and the name Perry stenciled on his chest. He was followed by an aide, a pretty dark haired woman in a blue overall who looked to be in her late teens or early twenties. She was carrying a long plastic tube with a screw cap at each end.

General Perry turned to the soldier who had announced his entry. "Thank you, that will be all for now, Staff Sergeant." The soldier saluted then left, closing the door behind him.

After the staff sergeant was gone, the young woman unscrewed one of the ends of the pipe and tipped out a rolled up map, which she hung on hook mounted to the wall. She then walked over to the speaker and turned off the sound, before proceeding to the back of the room where she divided her time equally to what was happening in the room and what was happening below.

"At ease, and grab a seat everyone." With barely a pause for everyone to get a seat, Perry continued on: "As you no doubt already heard, we are going to attack the triangle. What you don't know is, that isn't the only target." That got everyone's attention.

"Intelligence has located a secret skynet weapons research facility here," the General pointed at the map, "in Topanga Canyon. We've assembled a special heavy assault team to capture this facility. Your job will be to lend fire support for the assault team so it can achieve its objective, then secure the perimeter around the facility so the techs can enter."

"Your outfits have all been personally picked by Connor himself for this mission, and I can't emphasize enough just how important it is to capture the target intact and undamaged!

"For the attack you will be under the command of Colonel Jeffery Davis of the assault team. Under no circumstances are you or your troops to enter the facility without his direct permission.

"You'll meet the Colonel at the set rendezvous point just south of the target."

The General paused to look into the eyes of everyone seated before him before continuing. "This mission is classified Top Secret, so once you leave this room you will not discuss it with each other or the people under your command until you reach the rendezvous point. Is that understood?"

After he got the requisite, "Yes sir!" he nodded.

"Good! Now gather round, this is what we know of the defenses around Topanga."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Best laid plans…

'You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.' - Winston Churchill.

They left just before dark, making their way along Lincoln Boulevard, across a broken road bridge, then around the sunken pleasure vessels in the Marina Del Ray. The marina was an eerie place, with the wind making a weird moaning noise as it blew through the rigging of partly submerged yachts. It was as if the dead of LA had gathered in this one lonely place. It put everyone on edge. The column could not put the place behind them fast enough.

They then followed the Pacific Coast Highway before turning off to reach the rendezvous point, a small park at Sunset and Swarthmore.

Gabe's squad crouched down around the ruins of a small fountain and watched as the rest of the troops spread out and hide in the broken buildings surrounding the park. The lieutenant told them to wait there as he and other officers from the column went into the remains of a Starbucks to check in with the colonel.

Santiago nudged Gabe to get his attention, then nodded in the direction of a group of soldiers around the building the lieutenant entered.

"Check it out, Tech Com troops, 132 SSC. That's one of Perry's detachments. Do you think we're going to raid a factory? Cause that's what I heard those guys do! Capture important equipment and stuff!"

Gabe shrugged. "Don't know. I can't get anybody to tell me squat about what's going on. Weird though, that everyone else seems to be going to attack the Triangle, and we're going in the opposite direction looks like."

"Shut the chatter!" Sergeant Matheson snapped, "We go as we're told and we do as we're told! That's all we need to know. So cut the scuttlebutt!" With a last piercing stare to get the point across, Matheson went back to the conversation she was having with the sergeant from the mortar team.

The lieutenant wasn't gone more than ten minutes before he and the other officers came back out and rushed to their various units. When he got to the fountain, he waved the squad together. "We don't have much time, so here's the situation." He pulled out a map and laid it upon the ground. "We're going to this location to set up the mortars. Then we're to give fire support to the main attack here, going up to attack a skynet facility up here, in Topanga Canyon. Okay, we're moving out now. Corporal Foster, the heavy assault team lost its sniper team in an ambush by a Centurion patrol. The colonel has ordered that you're to attach to his company. Take Kelly for your spotter and report to a Lieutenant Anderson with the One Hundred Thirty-Second. You'll find him over there." He pointed to a group of soldiers a hundred yards up the road. Then he and the sergeant moved off to discuss the route, dismissing Gabe and Kelly.

Santiago came over and gave Kelly's shoulder a friendly squeeze, while he clasped Gabe's hand. "Looks like you two are going to steal all the fun from us!"

"I'm sure they'll be plenty to go round," Gabe replied warmly.

"Seriously, keep your head down, both of you. If you die I won't have anyone to bitch and moan to."

Chuckling, Gabe nodded. "We will. Now we better get going. Looks like our new lieutenant is getting ready to leave." With a last wave, Gabe and Kelly jogged to catch up to the assault squad.

"Don't worry," Gabe said to Kelly before they reached the other squad. "We'll probably never see any direct action." He did not realize how wrong he would be.

A few hours later, Gabe had his back to a large boulder that once formed the centerpiece for someone's front yard. Kelly was tucked on his left side, as they both tried to avoid the plasma bolts hitting their hiding place and the ground around them.

* * *

The advance had started well enough. They had left Pacific Palisades and started the upward march into the foothills without running into any opposition. They made it to their jump off point far sooner than anyone thought possible, not at least because a bunch of the biggest men Gabe had ever seen led the assault squad. In another lifetime, he would have thought he was following a pack of body builders. The pace they had set was punishing and many of the soldiers had been hard pressed to keep up.

It was a few hours before sunrise when the attack on the triangle began. From their vantage point in the hills, the assault group had a perfect view of the initial unguided rocket salvo, followed by light artillery and mortars. It reminded Gabe of a pre-Judgement Day fireworks display, with the sound of explosions arriving a couple of seconds after the detonations, lending the whole scene a surreal feel.

It was a remarkable sight. Skynet must have thought so too. It looked like every aerial HK in LA was heading towards the melee. Gabe ducked when one flew low overhead. Its engines screamed like banshees as it hightailed to join its brethren, circling like angry hornets over the battle.

They had made good progress for about two miles. Terminator patrols were overcome with ease, due to the resistance's overwhelming numbers, but then all hell broke loose. Three Centaur HKs, supported by a score of Endos, hit them seemingly out of nowhere, breaking up their line of advance, which degenerated into a series of smaller set piece battles.

Chaos reigned and a frontline no longer existed, forcing Gabe and Kelly to move forward closer to the lead elements of the attack, lest they be cut off and surrounded by the increasing number of Terminators entering the battle. So here they were now, pinned behind a rock with the other lead elements, likewise pinned by a number of Endos in a well-fortified position further up the slope.

A series of explosions down the hill signaled the end of one of the Centaurs as its hydrogen fuel cells cooked off. Gabe turned to check on Kelly to find her with her eyes closed and her shotgun clutched, white knuckled, in front of her. "Won't be a moment!" he said, as he quickly leaned out to snag the barrel of a plasma rifle from a fallen soldier. He pulled it back into cover, just as a heavy plasma bolt hit the ground where the gun had lain. Gabe felt the skin around his face tighten from the heat of the near miss.

He passed the gun to Kelly. "Here, loose the pea shooter!" As Kelly shouldered her shotgun and checked over the plasma rifle, Gabe mused that the gun looked excessively big in her small hands.

He carefully worked his way around to the other side of Kelly, then lay flat on his back with his gun extended in front of him. After taking a couple of deep slow breaths to calm himself, Gabe rolled onto his stomach and clear of the rock. He sighted down his scope at the Terminator in the building opposite. Its left eye grew as large as the sun as it glared back at him from the other end of his scope. He pulled the trigger and the Endos head snapped around at a right angle as the bullet bounced around its cranium.

Without waiting to see it fall, Gabe swung around and targeted another Endo. He flipped a switch on his gun to semi-auto, then emptied the remainder of his clip. The Endo went down in a shower of sparks and one of the large soldiers from the assault group took advantage of the gap that Gabe had created to rush forward. He reached the enemy front line just as the last Endo Gabe had shot started to get up again. The Endo was starting to raise its gun when a plasma bolt blew away its head. Gabe looked around at Kelly as she stood frozen in astonishment, still aiming the plasma rifle at the downed Endo.

"Good shot!" said Gabe as he grabbed the front of her tunic. "Let's go before they close the gap!"

They joined others of the assault group rushing through the hole in the enemy front line.

The battle became a blur of explosions, smoke, and fire for Gabe as he followed the assault group. His radio spewed forth a confuse rattle of voices asking for fire support, help, or reinforcements. The cacophony got so bad he ended up turning the volume right down, until it was just a murmur in the background, as the group finally stopped.

The facility was typical of skynet's designs, all angles and functionality that left everyone in no doubt it wasn't made for or by anyone human. It was covered in chameleon paint, which mimicked the surrounding terrain, and made it impossible to spot from a distance, even if someone knew what they were looking for. But up close, or if there was any movement around, the building was easily seen.

One of assault soldiers aimed a Carl Gustav M3 recoilless rifle and pulled the trigger. The high explosive projectile blew a large hole in the side of the building and disrupted the chameleon coating with shards of rainbow colors radiating out from the breach.

_Guess we're not going through the front door, _thought Gabe, as he and Kelly rushed to the jagged opening behind the assault group.

It was bright inside but visibility was bad, because a ruptured pipe was venting a cloud of steam into the corridor – at least Gabe hoped it was steam. There was nobody about and as soon as they had entered the building, their com stopped working. Gabe was unsure of which way to go. The sounds of plasma rifles were coming from all directions, but no sound of commands, yelling, or screaming could be heard. It was as if the assault squad had completely vanished.

Gabe picked a corridor at random and cautiously started down it. "This way!"

They eased their way down the corridor, hugging the left wall until they were finally clear of the steam, to find themselves at a four-way intersection. Gabe carefully checked the side corridors before continuing ahead, when a sound of steel on concrete brought him to stop. A glint of chrome caught his eye as an Endo came out from behind some large cylinders. Gabe yelled "Metal!" and, pushing Kelly back down the corridor they'd come from, brought up his gun as the Endo started to bring up its own. Gabe was quicker and squeezed off a burst that, in his haste, went wide, striking the cylinders behind the Endo. They detonated with terrifying force slamming the hapless Terminator through the corridor wall. Gabe was also picked up and went flying down the hall and into darkness.

* * *

"Gabe, Gabe! Can you hear me? You have to wake up!"

The female voice full of concern sounded like it was coming from far away; he tried opening his eyes, then closed them quickly against the bright light that formed a halo around the girl.

"Jen? What happened? Is it time to go?"

"Who's Jen? …No, it's Kelly. Gabe you have to wake up! Come on, Corporal!"

The incessant prodding and slaps around the cheeks brought Gabe back to his senses. He opened his eyes again, then squinted at Kelly's concerned face.

"Are you all right? How do you feel?"

Gabe put his fingers to his temple and started to gently massage it. "Like someone used my head to ring a very large bell." He sat up and looked around. They were not in the same passageway as before. "Where the hell are we and where's my gun?"

Kelly reached behind him and brought his Barrett into view. "I'm sorry, it kinda got damaged."

His gun was now banana shaped with a piece of steel lodged in it. The gun had saved his life one final time by preventing him from being chopped in half.

He put the now useless weapon down, as Kelly filled him in on what he had missed. "We won!" she chirped brightly. "I mean, we captured the building and smashed the defense grid in the triangle!"

"That's good, " Gabe replied as he got unsteadily to his feet. "But you still haven't told me where we are."

"Oh, sorry. After you got knocked out, some soldiers from the Tech Com unit found us and patched you up. They brought us here and said they would send a medic to take a look at you but so far no one's been back."

"How long ago was that?"

"Couple of hours, I think."

"Well, I don't think anyone's coming, and I don't need a medic." Gabe gingerly felt around his torso – a couple of bruises, which wasn't too bad considering. They were sore but not enough to slow him down, though by tomorrow they would hurt a whole lot more. He picked up his useless gun and stripped the undamaged parts before dropping it again. "Which way did they go?"

"That way." Kelly pointed down the hallway.

"Okay." Gabe pulled out his sidearm and checked it. The automatic wouldn't stop a Terminator but it made him feel better nevertheless. "Lets go then." They went down the corridor the Tech Com soldiers had taken.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Wrong place, right time

'There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.' - Brian Tracy.

It didn't take a genius to figure out if they were going the right way, it was simply a matter of following the trail of destruction left behind by the advancing resistance fighters. Scorch marks, blood trails, and destroyed Endos, just like following the yellow brick road. Well, that is if the yellow brick road wound through hell and was more grey black and red in color.

The sound of voices brought Gabe and Kelly to a halt. They had been walking single file but now Gabe indicated that Kelly should take the other side of the corridor. With weapons ready, they advanced on an open blast door that the voices were coming from. As they neared the opening, Gabe could just make out what was being said.

"It's as we suspected, it takes about an hour for the containment capacitors to cool down after we send someone through," said a male voice.

"John wants the power control relays removed and the time sequencer disconnected for transport as soon as we're finished, and then we blow the building," replied a female voice.

"When will they get here?" another male voice asked.

"The volunteers will arrive with John soon," the female replied.

"Aren't we too late? I mean, we couldn't stop the transfer, shouldn't something be different?" the second male voice asked.

"If a change were to occurred we would be unaware. However, it takes time even for time to change," the female voice answered.

"I never understood how that was possible. I thought it should be instantaneous," stated the first male voice.

"Events progress at a constant rate, while from our perspective the past is done. It is only so from our perspective. If it takes an hour for the T800 to make a critical change then we have an hour before that change catches up to us," explained the female voice.

"So time is on our side!" joked the first male. The second male chuckled, but Gabe did not hear the female respond as he and Kelly reached the doorway. The laughing died off quickly, probably because the female was not joining in. While it sounded like there were just people inside, Gabe was not going to take any chances.

"Er… Anyway, we need to have them cleared out of the way before the others get here," continued the first male.

"I must go outside and wait for John. I'll send someone to help clear the room," the female said. Then she suddenly stepped out into the corridor right in front of Gabe.

To her credit, the woman didn't show any surprise at being confronted by two armed soldiers. She just stood there calmly, with her head cocked to one side, staring back at them before she said, "You shouldn't be here."

To Gabe the woman didn't look very old. She was perhaps, in her early twenties with brown hair and eyes, pretty in a 'girl next door' kind of way. She wasn't wearing any type of uniform or insignia, just blue coveralls, combat boots, and a single holstered sidearm. Not your typical resistance garb. That and her calmness were enough to make Gabe wary of her.

"Watch her!" Gabe told Kelly, as he stepped around the young woman, giving her a wide berth so he could look into the room.

With gun outstretched, Gabe leaned around the doorway and scanned the room. It was large, circular in shape, and surprisingly empty except for a control console on the right hand side and several large, bulbous objects suspended from the ceiling against the walls. There were three soldiers in the room, instead of the two Gabe had expected. Two were at the control console, which was half dismantled. They were busily tracing circuitry and making notes on a yellow legal pad. The third soldier had a laptop, which was wired into one of the large bulbous objects on the far side of the room. He had his back to Gabe, and on the floor near him were two destroyed Endos.

One of the men working on the console spotted Gabe. He stopped what he was doing and began to walk over to him.

Gabe relaxed a little when he spotted the uniformed soldiers. As he holstered his gun, he indicated that Kelly could put up hers as well. To the young woman he said, "Who are you and what going on here?"

"Classified." She paused a moment as if considering something, then said, "I'm Cameron."

Although she was five foot tall, there was something about her that Gabe found unsettling. Her apparent calmness, the slightly stilted way of talking, and raptor stare was making him uneasy.

"What's going on here?" Gabe turned to the soldier from the room then thought, _Crap_, when he turned out to be a captain. He gathered himself enough to salute and say, "Sir!"

"Where did you two come from? The building is supposed to be cleared!"

"We're part of the assault force. We got separated from the main group and our coms are down," explained Gabe.

"There's a suppression field inside the building that's preventing the coms from working." The captain looked thoughtful for a second, then continued, "Since you're already here, I need those two Endos cleared from the room. Then you can rejoin your unit outside."

"They are not authorized. Only personnel cleared by John are to be allowed access," the girl Cameron chimed in.

"I'll take full responsibility for these two. Don't you have to be somewhere?" the Captain didn't seem to like Cameron. His attitude wasn't lost on the girl, thought Gabe as she went very still for a second, then in a perfectly calm voice she replied, "Yes. I have to be somewhere." Then she turned and headed down the corridor without a backward glance.

The captain was already walking back towards the console. Over his shoulder he said, "Just take them outside, Corporal." Then went back to whatever he was doing before Gabe turned up.

The first Endo was only twelve feet from the door. The second was in the middle of the room. Both of the machines' weapons were leaning against the wall behind the control console. Gabe told Kelly to put hers there as well so she'd have both hands free. While she was doing that, Gabe went over to the closest Endo to examine it.

The Terminator had taken two hits, one to the body and one to the head, which had fried its chip. Gabe walked around to its head, then bent over and wrapped his hands around each side of its collarbones and pulled. The body came off the floor a few inches, then made a clunk sound when Gabe dropped it back to the floor. Man, was it heavy!

Kelly had come back and asked, "How are we going to shift them?"

_How indeed! _"With a forklift. That is, if we had a forklift."

"A fork what?" Kelly replied, puzzled.

"Never mind," said Gabe, as he walked back down to it's feet and picked up one of it legs by its' shinbones.

"Grab the other leg. We'll drag it out."

As heavy as the Endo was, once they started to get up some momentum it wasn't too bad, well except for the sound like fingernails being dragged down a blackboard as they dragged it's carcass out of the room.

When they re-entered, it was to find the three Tech soldiers all staring at them as if they had committed some kind of social faux pas.

The captain said, "Well! Let's not do that again." He waved to the soldier with the laptop. "Specialist! Would you give the Corporal a hand to remove the last one?"

* * *

Terminator model T850 serial number 260215LA0004163 had been disabled by a plasma bolt to the chest. The charge had severed the main power distribution conduit that fed its primary systems, and it had to fall back on auxiliaries to remain active. As serious as the damage was it should not have been put it out of action. The T850 had quickly accessed the damage to itself and began rerouting power through secondary and tertiary subsystems, but to no avail. A loose wire attached to the main power junction was dangling too close to its frame. Every time it tried to power up the wire would arc, sending electricity surging up its frame causing it to deactivate and reboot. Unable to fulfil its mission to secure the room, it had sent out a signal for it to be recovered and repaired. After two hours, thirty-seven minutes, and fifteen point eight seconds, it became aware of three enemy combatants standing next to it.

* * *

"If you take one side of the chest plate, and I the other, we should be able to lift it," the specialist was saying to Gabe. To Kelly he said, "And all you have to do is grab its feet."

Gabe tentatively touched the Endo. There were sparks coming from the hole in its chest and he did not want to get a shock from it. All he got was a slight tingling sensation, so he took a firmer grip.

"Alright, one, two, three, heave!" The heavy body came off the floor. "Okay, let's turn towards the doorway."

When the enemy combatants had started moving it, the T850 noticed a change in its condition. The power drain that was preventing full activation was suddenly gone. Status reports flashed up stating an intermittent power fluctuation was present, and that it would be only running at sixty two point seven three percent efficiency. Nevertheless, that was enough.

Gabe was suddenly alerted by the whirling sound of servos as the Endo brought its legs up, causing Kelly to yelp in surprise. It then kicked out with both feet, sending the girl flying through the air until she hit the wall with a sickening thump.

"It's live!" the specialist managed to yell out, before he and Gabe were thrown to the floor by the reactivated machine, which hit the ground with a loud metallic clunk before rolling onto its side. As it turned, it brought its arm down, hard, across the specialist's neck, crushing his throat. It then withdrew the dying man's sidearm with its other hand and sat up.

Gabe had scrambled back out of its reach, and had just managed to get his own sidearm out when the Endo shot him through his right shoulder without even looking around.

The machine slowly got to its feet, pausing every few seconds as it tried to compensate for the intermittent power flow it was receiving. Then it raised its gun and fired shot after shot at the Techs cowering behind the console. Sparks flew as something vital was hit, and a low thrumming sound just on the edge of hearing filled the room. The Endo ran out of bullets and let the empty gun fall to the ground. It started to make its way towards the hapless technicians, just as the bulbous cylinders swung slowly down from the walls, to form a semi-circle with Gabe and the Endo inside.

He could not understand why the two Techs were not firing back. They both had plasma rifles and could easily take the Endo down. He started fumbling to get his pistol into his left hand as he yelled, "Shoot it! SHOOT IT!"

The Techs seemed more interested in the console than the certain death making its way towards them. Gabe finally got his gun raised, and emptied the entire clip into the Endo's back, causing the Techs to duck down behind the console again.

The machine paused, looking from Gabe to the Tech's and back again. Then it changed directions and started back towards Gabe. "Oh shit!" He looked at the Tech's again, and yelled, "Shoot it!"

The captain yelled back, " We can't risk hitting anything vital!"

_Say what_? Gabe ejected the spent magazine, then placed the gun on his stomach, while simultaneously sliding himself backwards from the advancing Terminator, all the while trying to find a fresh clip in his pouch. As he frantically searched, his finger touched a small, round, familiar shape, just as a cold steel hand wrapped itself around his neck and lifted him off the floor, then begin to squeeze.

He should've been dead instantly, but the Endo seemed to be having trouble closing its hand. It would begin to contract, then have a spasm, which relived the pressure. Then it would squeeze again. Each time its hand would contract more and more, choking Gabe. He knew he was dead, and had only a few scant seconds left. He could feel the familiar shape of the M67 frag grenade in his left hand. He caught the pull-ring on a protrusion on the Endo's side, and heard the soft tinkle as the safety pin hit the floor followed by a metallic twang as the safety lever flew off.

Four seconds of life….

One….

Gabe smiled into the Terminator's death mask face as he jammed his hand as far as it would go into its chest cavity.

Two….

"Nooooo!" yelled the captain, realizing what Gabe had done. He slammed his hand down on the manual activation button.

Three….

Gabe closed his eyes. Jen's face swam into view, smiling beatifically at him.

Four….

The world ripped apart in a swirl of colors, lightning, and pain.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Life is but a dream

'Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.' - Lazurus Long.

The siren rose and fell. Just on the edge of consciousness, there were voices, too, that also faded in and out, sometimes together and sometimes separately, like the ebb and flow of a morning's tide. The pain was gone and Gabriel was content to let it all go: the war, the world, everything. If only the voices would just leave him be.

"…ot have we got?"

"…gun shot victim…multiple contusions and…"

"…ep him for surgery…he's coding..."

"…as he regained cons…"

"…o I.D. was found…completely naked! Not a…"

"…ake his fingerprints, maybe that'll tur..."

* * *

Gabe opened his eyes to a blurry whiteness. He blinked a few times and his vision began to clear. _Heaven? Strange, it feels like I am lying down. Sit up then._

"Arrrrruggg!" Pain. _Definitely not heaven then_.

"Ah, you're awake." Someone came into his field of vision and was looking down at him, smiling pleasantly. An African American woman in her thirties, pretty and for some reason wearing a nurse's uniform.

"Woogh amee!" He managed to rasp out.

"Try not to talk. Your larynx was injured. Hold on a moment." She bent down, almost out of his view. He heard a humming sound and his world view began to change. The whiteness became a corner, then a lime green wall, then it stopped as he was now sitting.

"Here, try and drink a little water. It'll make you feel better." He felt something being put into his mouth. A straw? He sucked a little, and icy cold water filled his mouth. It tasted fresh! He pushed the straw back out with his tongue, and tried to talk again.

"Where?" Still a little raspy but at least intelligible.

The woman ignored his question and asked her own, "Do you know your name?"

"Yes, Gabriel. What is this place, where am I?" He tried to turn his head to look around but found he couldn't.

"Do you know what day it is?" The woman asked, again ignoring his question.

"No," replied Gabe while thinking, _Is she some kind of moron? _He tried to ask again. "Where am I?" His frustration was starting to come through in his voice.

"I know you have a lot of questions, but Dr. Anderson will be by shortly to answer them. Just try to be patient a little longer, okay?" She wrote something on a clipboard, then checked her watch before saying, "I'll be back to check on you a little latter." Then, with a quick smile, she was gone.

"Wait!" Too late, he was alone again. "Shit!"

Time to explore. He moved his left hand up his body until he reached his chest. There was bandages running around it. He tried moving his right arm, being careful to only move it from the elbow down, but got nothing, like it wasn't there. He panicked for a second, until he reached over and touched it with his left, reassuring himself that it was still attached. For some reason it was somehow immobilized. By what he couldn't tell. _Never mind, why can't I move my head? _He reached up. There was something on his shoulders - metal, horseshoe-shaped, with rods coming out of it, four of them. He traced one of the rods up. It went above his eye line to some sort of circle with, yes, threaded bolts which, _Oh my god! They're screwed into my skull! And I'm bald!_

_Well, that explains why I can't move my head. So how did I get here and why am I not dead? I should be, but I'm not. Why? Grenade didn't go off. If it didn't go off, the Endo should have killed me! After all, it's what they do! So why aren't I dead? Maybe the captain grew a pair and finally shot it! Yes, that must be it, I do recall a flash!_

Finally happy he was able to figure out why he was alive, Gabe turned his attention to his surroundings. Being, for the most part, unable to move, what he could see didn't tell him much more than he already knew. On each side of his bead were drawn privacy curtains, and in front of him was a plain green wall. For an infirmary, it was extremely well maintained and clean. Even the sheets smelled clean! Of all the patch up stations he'd been to over the years this was the best he'd seen.

A balding man with a bad comb over stepped into Gabe's line of sight. He was wearing a white coat over blue scrubs, and had a stethoscope around his neck. Picking up and checking the chart at the end of the bed, he spoke in a voice full of fake concern.

"How are we today? My name is Dr. Anderson. Can you tell me if you are experiencing any nausea or dizziness?" He shined a penlight in each eye.

Taken aback, Gabe relied, " Er, um, no, I feel okay considering."

"Good, can you follow the light?"

As he moved the light back and forth, Gabe asked, "There was a girl with me. Her name is Kelly, is she alright?"

The doctor straitened up, with a thoughtful look on his face. "I don't recall anyone coming in with you, but I'll check in with the nurse's station as soon as we're through."

From the moment Gabe had woken up, he had been feeling a bit hazy. In addition, there was a niggling worry at the back of his mind, telling him that things were a little off. He decided he needed to know more about his situation.

"So what's the damage?"

"Well," said the doctor, while scribbling down some notes, "Let's see, you were shot through the right shoulder. The bullet went through your body, and came out and nicked your right humorous. Luckily nothing vital was hit and we repaired the damage. However you did loose a lot of blood, which we replaced…" He paused to gather his thoughts. "You have deep bruising to your neck and your larynx, which will be sore for awhile. Your C4 and C5 vertebrae sustained some trauma, which is why we have you in a halo to keep you head immobile while they heal."

Tapping a pen against his lips, the doctor continued, "When we x-rayed you we found some dark masses in your lungs, so we took some blood before the transfusion and sent it off to the lab. We should have the results by tomorrow."

"You have a working x-ray machine and a lab?" asked Gabe, quite impressed.

"Why yes," replied the doctor, genuinely puzzled. "It's fairly new, the hospital board approved its purchase two months ago."

"Hospital?" The unease Gabe was feeling was beginning to bloom. "What hospital?"

"Why, the Santa Monica UCLA Medical Centre. You were brought in by paramedics last night!"

He closed his eyes tightly and tried to make sense of what he had just heard. Gabe knew of this hospital. It was nothing but rubble last time he checked.

"Mr. Foster, are you alright?"

Gabe's eyes flew open. "How do you know my last name? I never gave it to the nurse!"

The doctor was beginning to look uncomfortable under Gabriel's intense stare.

"Um, well, the hospital is legally obliged to report all gun shot victims to the police. They took your fingerprints after you came out of surgery."

The doctor seemed to get his courage back a little. "We got a call from them about half an hour ago with your name and address."

"The police," Gabe groaned. "A hospital that no longer exists! Somebody's playing a joke on me, yes. Well, I'm not laughing!"

"Please try and remain calm," said the doctor in a soothing voice. "We don't want to aggravate your injuries."

Gabe was about to tell the doctor where he could stick his "calm," when a nurse interrupted them. She and the doctor moved out of earshot and began conversing in low tones. Gabe couldn't hear what the nurse said, be he did hear the doctor mention something about a psych consult.

"Ah, Mr. Foster, if you feel up to it there's two detectives outside who'd like to ask you some questions."

"Sure, why not?" After all, how much more crazy can this day get! Apparently, a lot more as two men in rumpled civvies came in and stood on each side of his bed.

"Mr Foster, I'm detective McNeil and this is detective Lee from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs' Department." They both flashed badges at him then put them away. The one called McNeil pulled out a notebook and pen.

"Can you tell us what happened?"

Gabe pursed his lips, then stopped himself from replying. What could he say, these people were obviously nuts. Either that or he was. Now there was a disturbing thought.

"Mr. Foster?" The men were both looking at him expectantly. Perhaps it would be better to play dumb.

"I don't remember." _Okay, that's good, now what do I do?_

"What's the last thing you do remember?" asked detective Lee.

_Dying! _Gabe thought. _This is so weird. Maybe I should ask a question_. "What day is it?"

"April twenty-first," replied detective McNeil, who had started to tap his notebook with his pen.

Gabe licked his suddenly dry lips; April 21 was a date everyone knew: Judgement Day! He had to ask the next obvious question, even when he already knew the answer.

"2011?" there was no reason they should confirm the answer but he just had to know.

"That's right," acknowledged detective Lee. "Does that help jog your memory?"

_So this is what Hell's like, you relive your worst nightmare over and over again! _Gabe could not help himself: it started deep within his abdomen and bubbled upwards. He burst out laughing. It hurt and he could feel tears running down his face.

Detective McNeil closed his notebook as he and Detective Lee shared a knowing look across the bed. Gabe felt sorry for them as he wiped his eyes, his laughing subsiding.

Dr. Anderson self-consciously cleared his throat. "Perhaps you could come back another time when Mr. Foster is feeling a little better?"

The good doctor was just beginning to shepherd the two detectives from the room when the sound of two women arguing brought everyone to a halt.

"What do you mean I can't go in?" The woman was clearly upset.

"If you would take a seat, I'm sure they won't be long," the other woman said soothingly.

"I'm not going to wait!" replied the upset woman. "Out of my way."

The sound of the door opening brought the argument inside.

"I'm sorry, Doctor, she wouldn't wait."

"Where is he? I want to see him." The woman's voice was now recognizable. It was like a knife in Gabe's gut.

"It's alright. I'll take it from here. Hi, I'm Doctor Anderson, and you are?"

"Jennifer, Jennifer Bourne; the hospital called and said Gabe had been brought in but they wouldn't tell me anything. Is he alright?"

"He's stable for now; when he was brought in last night he was in pretty bad shape but I'm happ…"

The doctor was cut off mid sentence. "Last night? That's impossible! I said goodbye to him only this morning."

"Are you sure? I mean, could you be mistaken?" the doctor sounded confused.

"Of course I'm sure!" the woman snapped. "Oh, just get out of my way!"

And there she was, standing at the foot of his bed, more beautiful than he remembered. She stared at him a moment, clearly confused, then turned to the doctor. "That's not him. I mean, it sort of looks like him but it's not him!"

Detective Lee spoke up. "Are you really certain, Miss? Please take another look."

"It not him," said Jennifer, bewildered, she pulled out her mobile and hit the speed dial.

"You can't use that in here!" spoke up the nurse.

Gabe had been unable to speak from the moment Jennifer had entered the room. Just seeing her again was something he never dared hope was possible. His heart was beating so fast it felt ready to explode.

"Jen, is it really you?" he managed to blurt out.

"Gabe?" Jennifer lowered the phone from her ear, the ringing tone clearly audible, and walked up to the side of his bed. A puzzled frown was on her forehead. "Gabe," she said again, bending closer, her eyes searching his in confusion, "I don't understand."

He caught her left hand in his. Tears welled up in his eyes. How this was all possible did not matter, only that she was here with him again.

"I'm so sorry I left, but I'll never leave you again!"

Someone finally picked up the call on Jen's mobile phone. A familiar voice said, "Hi, beautiful, what's…"

Gabe squeezed her hand tight, as the world was lost in light.


End file.
